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Kevin
Kevin (ケヴィン) is one of the six main characters of Trials of Mana. Story Kevin is the rather inarticulate prince of Ferolia, Kingdom of Beastmen (known as the Beast Kingdom in the fan translation), realm of the demi-human beastmen. He is the son of Gauser, king of the beastmen, and a human mother. Unable to fit in with either beastmen or humans, Kevin spends most of his time wandering the Moonlight Forest with Karl, a wolf pup he befriended. The beastmen have had a long history of oppression at the hands of humans, who consider beastmen to be barely more than wild animals. Sick of the treatment of his people by "normal" humans, Gauser has long harbored a desire for revenge which is suddenly made attainable by the appearance of the mysterious "Man who devours death", who offers to place his dark magic at Gauser's service. Intrigued, Gauser asks this Deathjester to demonstrate his abilities by making Kevin's beloved friend, Karl, attack him. Though Kevin tries to defend himself, he fares poorly until his bestial side manifests itself. With the additional strength granted by his werewolf form, Kevin prevails but kills Karl in the process. With no further reason to stay in the forest, Kevin returns to Ferolia, where he learns of the Beast King's plans to send an invasion force to overthrow the humans' Holy City Wendel. Soon afterwards, Kevin overhears Gauser congratulating Deathjester on the results of his spell. Enraged, Kevin confronts the Beast King but is quite literally thrown out of the castle. He then decides to leave Ferolia behind and search for not only a way to revive Karl, but also the fate of his human mother. Acting on advice from Deathjester, Kevin sets out in the direction of Wendel. It is revealed at the end of game that Karl's death was nothing but an illusion. Kevin shares many plot elements with Charlotte, who has also lost a loved one to Deathjester's machinations. If either of them is chosen as the main protagonist, the main villain will be the Masked Mage and the final dungeon will be the Mirage Palace. Abilities As a beastman, Kevin is able to transform into a werewolf at night, increasing his already formidable attack power, making him the physically strongest character. After changing classes, he gains a few magical abilities to supplement his physical prowess. His martial arts based class also allows him to rack up more hits by number due to the nature of his fighting, granting greater damage by DPS and to quickly rack up his Tech meter. Regarding Kevin's classes, Light classes focus greater on the use of spells and techs to augment Kevin, granting him both the ability to use healing magic and the Pressure Point spell, which allows him to attack with the same strength as his werewolf form, even during the day; his final classes also each learn a Wood-elemental support spell. Kevin's Dark classes in turn focus more on exploiting his werewolf form, gaining stronger equipment for the dominant edge, and maxing out his base stats, specifically Strength; while their werewolf incarnations allow Kevin greater stat boosts than his Light classes, they do not have the luxury of Pressure Point, demanding reliance on equipment and raw stats and operating at night, and each final class only learn one Moon-elemental support spell. Classes Below is a list of Kevin's classes. The first class change takes place at Level 18, while the second one takes place at Level 38, with the latter requiring specific items acquired from ??? Seeds. Monk Finding the call to arms being that of the fighting spirit, the Monk finds solace in the belief that it is within the affairs of the heart and soul that a martial artist derives their strength from. Along with taking up the vow that justified force must be that of equal and necessary power to the fight before them that lies ahead, the Monk also turns to the ways of internal development and discipline to reinforce their affirmations and motivations. From this, Monks find the interval where willpower and spirit is turned into strength and action, and train themselves to ready their mind and heart to give their utmost conviction in battle. Warrior Monk Finding rather that battle is about slight of mental consciousness, perception, and acuity, the Warrior Monk goes along the ways of training their mind over heart. Through intensive meditation and study, the Warrior Monk follows instead the passage of knowledge and creed to guide their fists, and it is from this intense mental training that they derive a unique strength that cannot compare. However, while their passions and thirst for knowledge and edification may burn spirited, their grasping of logic and knowledge of the workings of the fight may turn their fists as cold and brutal as the truths they follow. As they follow their own path of righteousness, so has this class also learned to fight along with those that share their convictions into the heat of battle like an army onto themselves. Divine Fist (Godhand) Literally attaining the echelons of fighting divinity, the Divine Fist has unlocked the secrets of sentient transcendence and inner strength of a heavenly plane within themselves. Through coming to master one's heart and mind to harmonize with their own being and body, they have attained a level of skill that surpasses the mundane, and this level of mastery is also said in legend to be the sign which one has achieved a state of lofty existence to where holy spiritual power exudes from their very being. From this, the Divine Fist is able to flow with creation itself, able to tread on the borders of life and death free from inner tumult to follow through with their calling, and use their newfound spiritual powers to help unlock such potential in their fellow man and clear worldly obstacles, from healing pain, alleviating inner turmoil, and even knowing who to send back to the other side, to ease others paths to enlightenment. Brawler (Bashkar) Instead of the Monk's path of inner refinement, the Brawler comes to focus on the external aspects of strength, including the secrets of the flesh and body. Though the Brawler comes to derive strength from bulking their muscles and sinew, the class also comes to learn of the more brutal secrets of the flesh as well, from learning the weak points of the body and knowing the exact amount of purposed force to apply to defeat their enemies with sharp and unrelenting blows. Because of this focus of study, they are greater in brute strength and base attributes, but come to lack the direction and spiritual focus in skill. Enlightened (Dervish) A class that comes across as unfeeling and merciless, the Enlightened has combined martial arts skill and raw, brute strength with the teachings of removing oneself from one's emotions, attaining peak mastery with unflinching prowess and a mind incapable of distraction. Taught to become veritable living weapons, the Enlightened's methods sees them rush onto the border of life or death, and immediately shatters the tension that had flared up in a split second with the annihilation of the enemy with absolute skill and precise attacks powerful enough to render foes in pieces. Legends tell of their coming signaling omens of strife and carnage as its heralds, their fighting prowess witnessed to be like that of a dance on the battlefield dashing them in blood like a petal blown field of wildflowers, and illuminated in the flames of war. Fatal Fist (Deathhand) Considered the mirror opposite of the Divine Fist (Godhand), the Fatal Fist (Deathhand) comes to draw its strength from drawing upon the negative aspects of oneself, including the raw emotions of anger and spite, egotism, resentment, elitism, and accepting the capability to do great wrong and evil. Upon throwing oneself into such wickedness, the class then attains such wrathful power that shows no mercy no matter how paced the warrior fights, with each blow infused with the willingness to cause pain and suffering, and the intent of the complete destruction of opposition. Though it is the strongest of the martial arts based classes, its power is resented as taint and evil, its methods feared for their mercilessness and brutality, and shunned for their ways of coming to power to the point that the martial arts world keeps its name hushed in taboo and forbidden secrecy. Skill Attacks Below is a list of skill attacks Kevin learns across his different classes: * Note: Kevin's skill attacks are named after creatures of Chinese mythology: Byakko (Baihu) is the white Wind Tiger, Genbu (Xuanwu) is the black Earth Turtle, Shiryu (Qinglong) is the blue Water Dragon and Suzaku (Zhuque) is the red Fire Bird. Spells Kevin is capable of learning a very small range of spells, which are mainly either healing or weapon-enhancing ones. Below is a table of spells Kevin learns across his different classes: *'Note:' Kevin learns how to perform Heal Light on all allies as a Warrior Monk. Equipment Weapons Kevin for the most part utilizes gloves, claws, and knuckle weaponry to augment his martial arts and fist fighting; as he progresses later in terms of classes, Monk weapons will focus more on gloves and fists with a pacifist and self defense angle, or help simply augment the dynamics of techniques and the martial arts, while Brawler weapons will focus on haphazard and more dangerous knuckles and claws for the purpose of fighting dirty, bringing on pain, and targeting weaknesses to exploit. Armor Helmets Accessories Gallery File:Kevin_Godhand.png|Official artwork Kevin in his Godhand class. File:Kevin_Deathhand.png|Official artwork of Kevin in his Deathhand class. File:Kevin4.png|Kevin grieving over the "death" of Karl. File:KevinChibi.png|Chibi art from guidebook File:ToM-Kevin.png|Official artwork from the 2020 remake's cover art ToM-Kevin (Grappler).png|Render of Kevin in his initial class from the remake ToM-Kevin (Monk).png|Render of Kevin in his Monk class from the remake ToM-Kevin Class Change 1.png|Render of Kevin in his Monk class from the remake ToM-Kevin (Brawler).png|Render of Kevin in his Monk class from the remake ToM-Kevin Class Change 2.png|Render of Kevin in his Brawler class from the remake ToM-Kevin (Divine Fist).png|Render of Kevin in his Divine Fist class from the remake ToM-Kevin (Warrior Monk).png|Render of Kevin in his Warrior Monk class from the remake ToM-Kevin (Fatal Fist).png|Render of Kevin in his Fatal Fist class from the remake ToM-Kevin (Enlightened).png|Render of Kevin in his Enlightened class from the remake Trials of Mana - Kevin and Charlotte Story Art.jpg|Key Artwork for Kevin and Charlotte's storyline for the remake Trivia *If Charlotte is not added to the party, and Kevin is the main hero, she argues that she's 15, which leaves Kevin in disbelief, and he reveals that he's 15 as well. *His struggles with his werewolf form and being an athletics centered teenager, may be lifted from the youth novel and movie series Teen Wolf. Coincidentally, Teen Wolf 2 focuses on boxing. *Some of Kevin's classes have influence from different ascetic groups, most notably the Monk and the Brawler classes. They appear to have influence from G.I. Gurdjieff's work, Fourth Way, and their own respective associated religions. **The Buddhist-inspired Monk is said to attain self mastery through the affairs of the heart. **While not precisely named, the Brawler (Bashkar) class has more in common with the Muslim-inspired Fakir, said to attain self mastery through intense physical training and feats. Their possible class change to the Enlightened class, is also a large connection between the two classes. *His body and head equipment shown in his Divine Fist (Godhand) class artwork is erroneous, as they are the Suzaku Uniform and the Ruby Headband for the Enlightened Dark/Light class. *His ultimate weapon for the Death Hand class, the Skull Dissect, bears resemblance to horror slasher villain Freddy Kruger of Nightmare on Elm Street fame's makeshift knife clawed glove; curiously, The Final Nightmare also depicts earlier versions of gloves he used as a serial killer to torture his victims with, and in terms of video games, even used Nintendo and Mattel Electronic's infamous NES Power Glove. Freddy also had engaged in combat and killed martial arts enthusiast and brother of main character Alice Johnson, Rick Johnson, in the fourth installment The Dream Master, through the use of his glove, but rather through impalement, however. *His Dark path classes may take root and inspiration from classic traits of martial arts action movies and series, in where themes of antagonists being involved with criminal and hoodlum activity as physically fit martial artists and strongarms, or even as criminal kingpins or threatening teachers and influencers of satsujinken/"fists that kill/war" are common. Natural to these kinds of characters, spiritual attainment, refinement, and discipline are not something they think of nor find important, as so much as egotistic displays of power and gaining whatever they want with force, no matter how far down the path they will go for it. **Appropriately, Kevin's Death Hand's attire is most similar to that of late 1980s and 1990s interpretations of martial arts antagonists and villains, as a dangerous thug and fantasy imagined punk or outlaw, with real world inspired steel toed boots, torn clothes to represent a rambunctious violent nature, and to themes of wearing "memento mori" or death symbolism attire, to drawing upon rage and hate to act out upon others with. A similar case may be made with Odie Oldbright and Odi Wang Lee of Live-A-Live, a sibling Square RPG series made around Seiken Densetsu 3's time, and some aspects may be compared to M.Bison/Vega/Dictator of Street Fighter fame, the prominent trademark villain of its series. **Significantly in the Final Fantasy Adventure/''Sword of Mana'' remake, class progression for Brawlers/Bashkar classes demand level requirements in Monk classes to attain. This may also hearken to the idea that some students and trainees of martial arts tradition will use their power and knowledge gained for unwholesome purposes, a way that many established and respected schools of martial arts forbid their use of, further highlighting the thug and strongarm theme found in martial arts Dark classes. **Conversely, Kevin's Enlightened/Dervish Dark-Light class may hearken to extreme Japanese manga martial arts series such as Baki The Grappler, Koukou Tekkenden Tough, Riki-Oh, Ikki Tousen, and Fist of the North Star, in where a more pragmatic and brutal world where strength and power ultimately rules all demands the protagonist to learn how to be as brutal within the current world of martial arts to establish their influence into the world. Appropriate in contrast to more fantastical and lighthearted martial arts fare, where ki powers allow for energy attacks and where lofty virtue helps to defeat evil easily, such series are either more "realistic" or have reservations for only the strongest and worthiest of fighters in its pinnacles for such powers, as highlighted with the Suzaku Sky Dance Tech and its focus on high well rounded maximum base stat growth. Furthermore, his new character design in the remake has him wear clothes evocative to that of Norse Vikings and their berserker warriors, helping to establish the Mana/Seiken Densetsu series' interpretations of such series and their protagonists. Category:Characters Category:Trials of Mana Player Characters